CHP Affiliates
CHP Affiliates - Internal
Elaine Larson, PhD, RN, FAAN, CIC
- Anna C. Maxwell Professor Emerita and Special Lecturer, Columbia University School of Nursing and Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Antimicrobial Resistance
Tonda Hughes, PhD, RN, FAAN
- Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing in Psychiatry, Associate Dean, Global Health, Executive Director, Center for Sexual and Gender Minority Health Research
Ana Kelly, PhD, RN, FAAN
- Associate Professor at CUIMC, Master’s Direct Entry (MDE) Program, Director, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, Coverdell Fellows Program, School of Nursing, Columbia University
Mary Mundinger, DrPH
- Dean Emerita, Edward M. Kennedy Professor of Health Policy in the Faculty of Nursing
Allison Norful, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAAN
- Assistant Professor, Columbia University School of Nursing, Nurse Scientist, New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Kellie Bryant, DNP, WHNP, CHSE, FAAN
- Assistant Dean of Clinical Affairs and Simulation, Columbia University School of Nursing
![Headshot of Kellie Bryant]()
Corina Lelutiu-Weinberger, PhD
- Associate Professor of Health Sciences Research, Columbia University School of Nursing
Isaac Kwabena Ayereka, MSc, MSc, MA, BA
- Doctoral Student, Teachers College, Columbia University
Isaac Kwabena Ayereka is a highly motivated and resulted-driven professional with a diverse background in project management, public policy, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning etc. He has successfully managed complex projects for various organizations ensuring timely completion and exceeding project targets.
Isaac served a year of mandatory national voluntary service with the Social Welfare Department in Ghana after obtaining his first degree. He was responsible for bringing abusers of children and women to justice. This motivated his desire to help underserved communities and to promote social justice.
Isaac became a Project Manager for the Anglican Diocesan Development and Relief Organization, where he was responsible for malaria prevention and control.
Isaac also worked with MAP International as a Project Officer, where he was in charge of Adolescent Reproductive Health. He served as a Community Led Total Sanitation consultant for USAID/Global Communities and as a Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) Resource Person for UNICEF. He then worked as a Project Manager for World Vision Ghana on a WASH project. Isaac is the founder of Teen Health Washington, a non-profit he founded in Seattle in 2022. The organization educates the African migrant population in Seattle about health issues. He is also the Program Manager for Teen Health Ghana. His research interest includes HIV/STI, health education, water sanitation and hygiene, health policy, nutrition, chronic disease, and behavior change.
He worked with several professors as a Research Assistant on the following research projects: Moral Theory and Climate Change: Ethical Perspectives on a Warming Planet, Gender based violence in South Africa and Botswana and Institutional challenges from the climate crisis: preface to a manifest. Isaac is currently a doctoral student pursuing Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Isaac is eager to leverage his expertise to lead strategic initiatives that propel organizations to new heights, and he is poised to make a significant impact in improving the lives of vulnerable people.
Maureen Henry, JD, PhD
- Deputy Director, International Longevity Center-USA & Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program
Maureen Henry has 20 years of cross-disciplinary experience in health policy, quality improvement, performance measurement, and complex patient populations. Currently, Maureen is Deputy Director for the International Longevity Center-US at the Columbia Aging Center, and Deputy Director for Fellowship Programs with the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program. Previously, she was a Senior Program Officer - Study Director for the Global Roadmap for Healthy Longevity project at the National Academy of Medicine, and a Senior Manager at CVP Health before that. At CVP Health, she was part of a team using information technology and advanced analytics to solve intractable changes in quality improvement and measurement, policy, and healthcare delivery. Before joining CVP, she was a Research Scientist at NCQA, where she focused on measures for high needs/high cost patient populations, including those with multiple chronic conditions, serious illness (hospice and palliative care), and renal disease. As a Health and Aging Policy Fellow, Maureen worked as a healthcare staffer in Virginia Senator Mark Warner’s Washington office. In that role, she assisted with negotiating and drafting the Care Planning Act of 2013 and met with constituents in DC and Virginia. Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman appointed Maureen as the Executive Director of the Utah Commission on Aging in 2005. She led the process of rewriting the state’s advance directive and POLST laws, successfully introduced legislation to allow geriatricians to participate in loan forgiveness programs, and collaborated with agencies such as AARP and the United Way to meet the needs of older adults in Utah. She secured funding to create the Utah Aging and Disability Center in 2009 and directed the program through 2019. Before 2005, Maureen practiced elder law and was a Project Director at HealthInsight (now Comagine Health), leading a state-wide partnership on end-of-life care, and practiced elder law. She was awarded a J.D. by the University of California Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) and a Ph.D. in Nursing Research from the University of Utah. She is interested in biomedical ethics, person-driven care, autonomy in cognitive impairment, and engaging patients in shaping quality measures and the healthcare delivery system.
CHP Affiliates - External
Laura Starbird, PhD, RN
- Assistant Professor, Department of Family and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Dr. Laura Starbird is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in the Department of Family and Community Health and a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Dr. Starbird’s research focuses on real-world implementation and the economic implications of interventions at the intersection of substance use, HIV, and women’s health. Her work, informed by experience as a public health nurse, seeks to improve the way organizations deliver care to marginalized communities, rather than placing the burden on the individual patient.
Leah Estrada, PhD
- Postdoctoral Fellow, Mount Sinai Health System
Leah V. Estrada, PhD, RN is an Instructor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC. Dr. Estrada holds a joint appointment as a Nurse Scientist within the Center for Nursing Research and Innovation at Mount Sinai Hospital. Dr. Estrada received her PhD in Nursing in 2022 from the Columbia University School of Nursing, where her dissertation was on palliative care services and potentially avoidable hospitalizations for historically marginalized nursing home residents approaching end of life across the United States. Her desire to pursue a career as a nurse scientist was fueled from prior work as a nurse in an intensive care unit for a diverse population, where palliative care was necessary but underutilized. She pursued a PhD so that, through research, she could improve palliative care for all older adults that have been marginalized, not only the ones she had the privilege of serving personally. Dr. Estrada's research focuses on exploring the diverse palliative care needs for Latino persons with dementia and ultimately, work towards achieving health equity.
Komal Murali, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC
- Assistant Professor, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing
Komal Patel Murali, PhD, RN, ACNP-BC is an assistant professor at NYU Meyers interested in palliative and end-of-life care delivery for seriously ill persons living with dementia and multiple chronic conditions. She is currently supported by a National Institute on Aging IMPACT Collaboratory Career Development Award and is exploring barriers to hospice care for diverse persons living with dementia to inform the design of a health equity-focused culturally sensitive care coordination intervention to improve transitions into hospice in home healthcare. Motivated by previous nursing experiences in neurological and medical critical care, she is also passionate about optimizing the delivery of palliative and end-of-life care in the ICU setting. Dr. Murali was previously a postdoctoral fellow in the Comparative and Cost-Effectiveness Research Training Program for Nurse Scientists (T32NR0114205, 2020-2022) at Columbia Nursing and a predoctoral scholar in the NYU Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UL1TR001445/TL1TR001447, 2018-2020).
Poki’i Balaz, DNP, EMBA, APRN
- Obama Scholar, Member of the Native Hawaiian Health Advisory Board and the Policy Advisory Board for Elderly Affairs
Dr. Pokiʻi Balaz served as the Interim Executive Director of Lunalilo Home and has devoted her career to senior health with an emphasis on memory care and advocacy for underserved populations. As a Native Hawaiian and geriatric nurse practitioner, Dr. Balaz has seen firsthand how a cultural approach to caregiving improves health outcomes for aging individuals as well as how cultural values motivate the surrounding community to participate in a continuum of care. Her extensive clinical background and focus on resource optimization for the treatment of Alzheimer's and dementia prepared Dr. Balaz to address senior care issues through public policy. Accepting invitations by both her congressman and governor to contribute to the Native Hawaiian Advisory Council and Policy Advisory Board for Elderly Affairs, Dr. Balaz has worked on legislation that protects the interests of aging residents and that educates families on the complexities of healthcare for aging relatives. She served as the immediate past Board Chair of the Alzheimer's Association Aloha Chapter, recipient of the Alzheimer Association’s Advocate of the Year Award, Certificate of Honor from the Hawai'i State Legislation, Congressional Commendation from Congressman Kahele, Pacific Business News 40 under 40 and Hawaii Business Magazine 20 for the next 20. Dr Balaz is a double board-certified family nurse practitioner with a Doctorate in Nursing Practice from the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Shidler College of Business at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, RN, FAAN
- Dean and Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, RN, FAAN, is Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and the Patricia M. Davidson Health Equity and Social Justice Endowed Professor. She oversees the school’s mission to improve health across the globe through nursing leadership and excellence in education, research, practice, and service.
Under Szanton’s leadership, the school is ranked No. 1 nationally by U.S. News & World Report for its master’s and doctor of nursing practice programs and No. 3 globally by QS World University. In 2022, Szanton launched the impactful Policy Honors Program to help students develop advocacy skills in influencing policies that improve health. She is also chartering the creation of an innovative policy institute, which will serve as a hub for health policy leadership and research capacity development for global nurse leaders and scientists. Szanton has testified on Capitol Hill regarding the nursing workforce and faculty shortages.
As an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion, Szanton helped shape the pioneering Pathway To PhD Nursing Scholars Program to accelerate diversity within PhD-prepared nurses, and she established the Term Professorship for Rising Faculty to fund distinguished faculty in their research and leadership.
During her first year as Dean, Szanton was named a Woman of Achievement by Business and Professional Women of Maryland and was elected as a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). She is also a Heinz Award winner for the Human Condition and a PBS Organization’s “Next Avenue Influencers in Aging.”
Prior to becoming Dean, Szanton had co-developed a program for older adults to age in community, called CAPABLE. This program, which involves a nurse, an occupational therapist and a handyworker, started in Baltimore and has now spread to 23 States She maintains research on CAPABLE as well as on the impact of financial strain on health, and the measurement of structural racism and resilience across the life course.
Richard Dorritie PhD, RN, CNOR
- Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Meyers College of Nursing
Richard Dorritie PhD, RN, CNOR is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Meyers College of Nursing. His research interests are the intersection of policy, poverty and racism with the quality and safety of surgical care. Dr. Dorritie has focused his teaching and service around nurses taking on leadership roles, both as policy advocates beyond the direct care spectrum and as safety and error reduction champions within healthcare. His work is informed by experience as a clinical nurse in the emergency, transplant, and operating room settings.
